President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would nominate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for secretary of health and human services.
“I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to Public Health,” the president-elect added. “The Safety and Health of all Americans is the most important role of any Administration, and HHS will play a big role in helping ensure that everybody will be protected from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to the overwhelming Health Crisis in this Country.”
Trump stated his confidence that “Mr. Kennedy will restore these Agencies to the traditions of Gold Standard Scientific Research, and beacons of Transparency, to end the Chronic Disease epidemic, and to Make America Great and Healthy Again!”
Kennedy is the son of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, D-N.Y., the former attorney general who was assassinated in Los Angeles after winning the Democratic presidential primary in California in 1968. His uncle, John F. Kennedy, served as president until his own assassination in Dallas in 1963.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. grew up in the Washington, D.C., area and Massachusetts, graduating from Harvard University in 1976 and from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1982. In the 1980s he worked at two nonprofits focused on environmental activism: Riverkeeper and the National Resources Defense Council. He founded two nonprofit environmental groups.
Kennedy gained prominence by raising questions about vaccines and suggesting a link between vaccines and autism, which has yet to be proven. He criticized COVID-19 measures such as lockdowns and vaccine mandates, emerging as a leading figure in the movement for holding the medical establishment accountable.
He challenged President Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic primaries, dropped out in October 2023, but remained in the presidential race as an independent before endorsing Trump in August.
When endorsing Trump, Kennedy condemned the Democratic Party for “dismantling” democracy in the name of saving it. He condemned the Democratic National Committee for engaging in “continual legal warfare against both President Trump and myself.”
He spoke about an unholy alliance of big business, the legacy media, government agencies, and nonprofits that is making Americans fat and sick.
In October, Trump announced a campaign with RFK Jr. to “Make America Healthy Again.” Kennedy’s leadership at the Department of Health and Human Services would challenge the status quo and spark a what some call a true revolution in medicine.
“Robert has become a good friend of mine,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said in response to the news. “I think Robert is another disruptor, we need a disruptor.”
Roy called for “health care freedom,” expressing hope that Kennedy would “root out the bureaucracy here, beat back the insurance companies, the pharma companies, the big hospital corporations that are rolling over the little guys.”